


School Dazed

by Samarkand12



Series: The Heterodyne's Girl [5]
Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Paris, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22274404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samarkand12/pseuds/Samarkand12
Relationships: Agatha Heterodyne/Xerxsephnia von Blitzengaard
Series: The Heterodyne's Girl [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1458130
Comments: 9
Kudos: 80





	School Dazed

Though it was treacherous to her _alma mater_ , Agatha enjoyed the Paris Institute of the Extraordinary far more than Transylvania Polygnostic. TPU had been as much the Tyrant's fortress as a school. Behind the high walls defended by Mr. Tock at the gates were the ever-present patrols of the Clockwork Army. Agatha had never thought about the sense of subtle oppression that had pervaded TPU. The Institute was a hodge-podge of buildings ranging from mediveal to Beaux-Arts that was its legacy as the heir to the old Unversity of Paris. Instead of being challenged by a twenty-meter clank, one approached the always-open doors of the domed Sorbonne through the great courtyard--open to the street on one side--which had a permanent crowd thronging its cobblestones.  
  
Best of all, she was anonymous as she walked among the students and wandering vendors and street performers in the _Place de la Sorbonne_. She was no longer the awkward, broken pet of the Master who bumbled her way through life. A few professors and students had transferred from TPU. The Insitute was large enough that few of them noticed her. Those who seemed to recognize her walked off shaking their heads when she gave them the polite head-tilt-and-slightly-puzzled-smile that Sophie had taught her. To the rest, she maintained the poise of the bright, smart girl who looked smart that Sophie had drilled her in. _Head up. Confident stride. The past is a different country._ Agatha could feel Sophie’s hands on her shoulders she had stood nervously at the edge of the _Place_.  
  
She took a deep breath.  
  
She would not embarrass herself--  
  
(all those women look so pretty but so do some of the men but not as much as her)  
  
\--and let Sophie down.  
  
Agatha went forth.  
  
++++  
  
Working for Doctor Zardeliv was much more relaxing than when she had been Doctor Beetle's secretary. It was mostly routine paperwork and doing menial research tasks. He never asked her to assist him in his experiments as her old master had done. His graduate students did any preliminary grading. The half-day she spent in service to the Chair of Horology was often spent studying for the entrance examinations that occupied the rest of her day. It was, in fact, a sinecure whose responsibilities could have been handled by someone already in the university's secretarial pool. The fact that Doctor Zardeliv had received a generous grant from the Wulfenbach Empire for a term that she would spend to pursue a degree was something of a clue.  
  
There was the clockwinding, of course. "Zardeliv's clockwinder" sounded like a joke of a job until one had to do it. Her employer must have committed untold academic atrocities and dark deals to procure a sizable office overlooking the _Place de la Sorbonne_. A Chair of such an obscure department such as his should have been in the broom-closets that many of his fellow professors languished in. Doctor Zardeliv needed such an office for a chronometer collection that spanned the ages for a sundial (with its own miniature sun) to atomic-decay pocket watches. All of them needed winding, battery charging, weight adjustments, and even minor maintenance on a complex schedule.  
  
Agatha sat at the small desk by the window where she did her work. Spread out before her was Zardeliv's collection of souvenier pocket watches. She wound the stem of an example from Londinium as she let all the tension in her body transfer itself into its spring. Just allow all the anxiety, not thinking at allof the _taste of Sophie's lips. She dreamed of that kiss lasting forever. There had to be equations somewhere to help her build a device to stop time to prolong that all-too-brief moment of joy. No. She wanted more. She wanted to raise Sophie on a high throne so that she could watch as the one who adored her constructed vast edifices of marvelous device in her honor. She wanted to create entire armies that would bring to world to kneel before Sophie. She--_  
  
A cough came behind her.  
  
Agatha swung about to see that Doctor Zardeliv was staring her with an amused smile.  
  
"Ah." A half-hour had passed with her fingers slack on the winding stem. "I, ah--"  
  
"It is spring in Paris," Doctor Zardeliv said. He set aside one of the watches she should have wound by now. "I have been on this earth long enough to know that the minds of the young become distracted with matters of great import that cannot compare to mere common toil. Or term papers.”  
  
"Ho, you have no idea." Agatha smiled sheepishly. "I may have been slow typing up the correspondence."  
  
"It all seems in order." Zardeliv read a letter. "Mind you, the oversight committee may wonder about why I am asking the Master of Paris to have a giant statue of Sophie erected before the Awful Tower."  
  
"WHAT?" Snatching it, Agatha scanned through the typewritten lines. She glared at the doctor a moment later. "I wrote no such thing. Sir, the conditions of my employment do not include the right to torment me."  
  
"True. You are not a graduate student." Zardeliv slid a paper with the seal of the university on it. "Although I expect you to be one in a term of so."  
  
"They accepted me?" Agatha swallowed heavily as she read the document. "'--has shown competency in every test given--' ; '--have decided that aspirant had suffered undiagnosed learning disability--' "  
  
"In case you are wondering, your patron did not influence their decision," Zardeliv said. "Your proctors were all Sparks or minions of Sparks who were defeated by his father. You earned their respect on your own merits."  
  
"My patron?" Agatha blushed. "You mean Gi--er, Herr Wulfenbach. That may be a problem, Doctor. It has been brought to my attention that he may wish more than such a relationship. It may cause, ah, political problems."  
  
"Of course she would say that," Zardeliv muttered. "Her obsession will get her killed."  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"I am sure it was Madmoiselle Lavois who told you of the implications," Zardeliv clarified. "Well, the solution is simple enough. Simply write to him of your affair with Sophie."  
  
"I wish I could." Agatha sighed. "This morning she made it quite clear that such attentions should be directed elsewhere."  
  
Zardeliv blinked.  
  
"You mean you are not lovers?" Zardeliv said.  
  
"Wish I were. But she told me to date someone else." Agatha smiled sadly. "I do not think I will be much use for the rest of the morning. If you will excuse me, I will take my leave so I can jump around for a few minutes screaming RED FIRE I AM A STUDENT YES YES YES!"  
  
++++  
  
Dio Zardeliv sat very still as he listened to the Heterodyne Girl's distant cries of "YES!" from down the hall.  
  
He put his face in his hands.  
  
"Seffie, what in the name of Chronos are you doing?"  
  
++++  
  
Stretched out on the stone bench, Moloch dozed off the hangover on his last day in Paris. So much for making a big splash in the City of Lightning. It turned out that he wasn't any smarter than Omar. At least Omar had gone out the way he had wanted: fighting like a lunatic against a horde of slaver wasp warriors. He had died stupid but well. And what had his younger brother done with the sacrifice of his last brother and the reward the girl had given him?   
  
Pissed it all away.  
  
He had had a plan. He was going to live cheap while hustling for a living. Competition was fierce in the engineering racket in this burg. But a guy could go a long way if he was willing to settle for a Montparnasse garret or a shelf in the catacombs. Only there had been so much when he had gotten here: so much food, so much drink, just...so much. Coming out of the blasted Wastelands, seeing the sheer amount of stuff just there for the taking in a shop window had opened up his wallet like shrapnel hitting a vein. He had bought a suit just so he could eat a fancy steak dinner that he had puked up in the alley behind the restaurant. He had drunk the rainbow off the shelves of a bar in Pigalle. By the time it was all over, he didn't have two sous to call his name.  
  
His final hope had been hearing about some Spark who he had served a few years ago in one of the many merc outfits. The madboy was a professor at the big school here. But of course, Mr. High and Mighty didn't care about some vet with a sob story. Asking around had found that trying to get a spot on the staff here needed connections. So he had slugged back the last of some red wine and gone to ground on this bench here in the square before the school. Either the "Serpents" would scoop him up for vagrancy and kick him out of the gates. Or he would wake up to make the rounds of the recruiters who were always looking for fresh meat.  
  
He hoped the kid was alright. She had given him what had to be her life savings when he had brought back that locket. A girl like that could land in awful trouble if she wasn't careful. he hoped she wasn't some madboy's damsel or something. He hoped that she was like that girl who was dancing about while humming. Catchy sort of tune she was humming. Actually, she looked a lot like--what was her name, Anastasia? Nah, it was Agatha. She looked like Agatha had been cleaned up real well. Not his type. Pretty, though. Beautiful. She made that townie look he usually hated work. She--  
  
She cocked her head as she spotted him staring at her.  
  
"Herr von Zinzer?"  
  
"Agatha?"  
  
"What happened?" Agatha...Clay, that was her name. Agatha Clay knelt besides the bench.  
  
"Just a poor, dumb soldier." Moloch turned his back to her. "Don't bother with me, kid."  
  
" _No._ " Uh, she was really strong. She jerked him back to face her. "No friend of mine is going to be sad on this glorious, wonderful day."  
  
+++++++  
  
"--and so that's how I hooked up with these two." Moloch snorted. "I shoulda told her I was happy on bench."  
  
"Liar," the Castle said.  
  
"Yeah yeah, leave a man his illusions." Moloch sighed. "The things we do for love."


End file.
